


Just For This Moment

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode: s06e15 Freedonia, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-18
Updated: 2008-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-15 03:57:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Donna waits for Josh after the primary debate in New Hampshire





	Just For This Moment

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

  
Author's notes: A little tribute in here to President Johnson.  


* * *

~JOSH’S POV~ 

I’m the last to leave the reception hall. Everything’s dark. The candidates are gone, the staffs are gone, the press is gone, the public’s gone. 

Donna’s gone. 

Our gazes met at one point from opposite sides of the stage during the debate. I had no idea what she was thinking about then, but her gaze bore into me and, of course, it made these feelings that I’ve been trying to bury since Iowa resurface. She makes me lightheaded when she looks at me like that. 

She’s angry at me. I’m not sure why, and I don’t know what I’ve done, and I usually know. What? I do. I know when I’ve done something to piss her off. I don’t know what it is I’ve done and she hasn’t seen fit to tell me, but I know it happened months ago. Long before she left the White House. 

It’s not because I kept blowing her off and wouldn’t meet with her. She had made her decision before that. So it’s something that happened before she started trying to give me her notice. Part of me often wonders if she’s really mad at me or simply misdirecting to me because it’s easier to be mad at me. 

I was mad at her. When she left me. I couldn’t call her because I had never been more mad at her in our entire relationship than I was then. I eventually went to talk to her, but quite honestly, it was after I figured she’d gone up here to New Hampshire. I was so mad at her, and I wanted to stay mad at her. She left me, and that’s a sin to me. It’s unforgivable. 

Except for Donna. There’s nothing I won’t forgive her for. The best thing she’s ever done for me, for us, was leave that job. It left me with no choice but to think about what it is I actually wanted from her. And I was free to actually think about it. I didn’t have to stop the thoughts from coming because we worked together. She took care of that. 

The Congressman blindsided me with Amy. It took me and Amy all of 10 seconds to fall back into what Amy and I actually are, political adversaries. We’re supposed to be playing for the same team, but while I’m playing for the democratic party, Amy’s playing for Team Amy. 

I finally make my way outside and onto the top step. It’s bitter cold and I think it’s going to start snowing again. 

And Donna’s here. She’s sitting down leaning against the railing about half way down the steps in that bushy green jacket of hers and that fuzzy pink hat. Her hands are stuffed in her pockets. 

And somehow I know. 

I know she’s waiting for me. I don’t know what she wants, and I don’t know if she even wants to say anything at all, but it’s a freezing cold night in New Hampshire and she’s sitting on the frozen steps of the building where the debate was. 

I sit down next to her and stuff my hands in my pockets like she’s doing. These steps are pretty damn cold. She looks over at me and smiles, and I feel myself warming up, or at least my heart. She pulls her hands out of her pockets and pulls my hood up over my head. 

“I look like an idiot now, Donna.” 

“You lose most of your body heat through your head and your feet, Josh.” 

“Well, you always said I was hot-headed, so I figured I’d be okay.” I shoot back. She stuffs her hands back in her pockets. She’s beautiful. The light of the building lights is illuminating her in the dark and her nose is red and her eyes are bright blue. 

She sighs and smiles again. “I rose to the bait.” 

“You sure did.” I laugh. “CJ couldn’t believe I’d never taught you not to engage in battle with a chicken before.” 

“Well, I’d rather listen to that than what I got.” 

“What’s that?” 

“The Chief of Staff of the United States clucking at me in my voice mail, with...wait for it...the Chicken Dance playing in the background.” 

I can’t help it. I laugh. You just can’t do this stuff and think CJ’s going to let it slide. 

“I was yelling at a chicken on CNN.” Donna says dropping her head and shaking it back and forth in disbelief. 

“Nah, you were yelling at ME on CNN, Donna.” I say. “And you looked adorable doing it.” She looks up quickly at me, then looks out onto the street. 

“He was really good up there tonight.” she says softly. 

“Yes, he was.” 

“His debate rules are a little unconventional.” 

“HE’S a little unconventional.” I say back. 

“He doesn’t listen to you?” 

“Not usually.” 

“He should listen to you more, he’d be further ahead.” 

I shrug and look back out to the street. She’s right, of course. But by listening to me all the time, the Congressman also suppresses the man he is. How am I going to make everyone else see what I see if I constantly make him fall into line? 

“He’s a good man.” I say. 

“He must be if he’s got you working so hard for him.” 

I’m trying my damndest to figure out what the hell is going on here. She’s speaking to me, and speaking nicely to me. Not that Donna’s ever been mean to me. I’m not sure Donna’s capable of just all out being mean. But she has been snarky when we’ve run into each other on the campaign trail, snarkier than she normally is with me. 

“He’s a good politician.” I say. 

“First of all, he’s a crappy politician, Joshua, if he’s not listening to you. Secondly, name me one good politician that came out of Texas.” 

“Johnson.” I immediately shoot back. 

“Please.” she scoffs. “Lyndon Johnson was a lunatic! He used to take high power politicians and foreign dignitaries to his ranch for visits.” 

“And that’s strange how? The British Prime Minister has been to Manchester House.” 

“Lyndon Johnson used to give them rides in that nutty car thing of his on his ranch, then start screaming that the brakes didn’t work and drive full speed towards the lake!” She yelps out. Only Donna would have that information, and actually find a conversation to use it in. 

I miss her so much. 

“The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, National Endowment for the Arts, he appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court.” I tick off. 

“Vietnam.” she shoots back. 

“Okay, well, that might mitigate some of his awesomeness as President but everything I mentioned was historic.” 

“So was Vietnam.” 

I really, really miss her. 

“The Congressman’s a good man.” I say again. 

“I know he is.” she says quietly. 

“He’s inspiring, and that reminds me of someone very special to me.” I say softly. 

“You haven’t spoken too fondly of the President much lately.” she notes quietly. 

“I wasn’t talking about the President, I was talking about you.” 

I can hear her suck her breath in. How many years have I waited to say that to her? How many years had she waited to hear it? 

“You’re making fun of me.” she says looking away. 

“Big Sky National Park was formed because YOU inspired me to tell the President to do it. The first female Chief Justice sits on the Supreme Court because YOU inspired me to put her there. Last year, the President pardoned 35 people because of you instead of the 6 he was originally going to. I fought for that for you. It was important to you, so I walked into the Oval Office and fought for it. I most certainly am not making fun of you. I can go on if you need me to.” 

“I need you to.” she says quickly. 

Shit. 

“I flew half-way around the world. It wasn’t because I was afraid I wouldn’t find someone else to answer my phone. It was because I was afraid of losing the one person in this world who inspires me to be a better person, who makes me never want to settle.” 

“And yet, here she is settling.” she whispers wiping the tears from her eyes with her mittened hands. 

“You don’t have to.” 

“I do, Josh. Just this time, I do.” she says softly and my heart starts to turn cold again. “You’re so intense, Josh. Everything about you is passionate and intense, and I got so lost in you that I couldn’t tell where you stopped and I began. And it wasn’t until I left that I realized that’s what I wanted all along. I just wanted it with you without a desk in our way.” 

Whoa. 

That’s....that’s... 

Okay. I need to catch my breath. 

I waited seven years for something like this from her, for some hint that she felt the same way. Of course, I knew that she cared about me. But a hint that she wanted something more. 

But here’s this moment. What is turning out to be the best moment of my life. No microscopic glare of the White House, no curious press corps, no one in Washington whispering behind their hands. Just she and I as we were meant to be. Unguarded. Just for this moment, I can pretend that we didn’t cause each other pain. Just for this moment, I can pretend that she’s mine. For the first time in seven years, she’s the closest to mine that she’s ever been. 

“Josh?” she asks, pulling me out of what could be and bringing me back to what is. “I feel like I’m being sucked into the dark side.” 

I throw my arms around her and pull her tightly to me. I swear she could feel my heart pounding through these huge puffy jackets. “I’ll never let that happen, Donna.” I vow. She stays there for a moment before pulling back. She’s looking at me with unsure eyes. 

“I miss you.” she whispers. 

“I miss you, too.” 

Her eyes flicker quickly down to my lips and back up to my eyes. Thank God I’ve learned to read her so well over the years because THIS moment I’ve been waiting seven years for. I press my lips to hers and feel her mittens on my face. She wastes no time deepening the kiss. Her face is cold, but her lips shoot fire into me and warms me from the inside out. 

We pull apart when the need the take a breath nearly causes me to pass out, but that might be the power her lips have, in which case I’m completely screwed. It’s started to snow again and she looks up and smiles for a second before looking back at me. 

“Another amazing moment in the snow.” she smiles softly. “Will you walk me back to my hotel?” 

“Yeah, but I’m a slow walker.” I smile. 

“Since when?” she laughs. 

“Since I’ll have to say goodnight to you when we get there.” 

She smiles again and we stand up and make our way down the stairs. Once we’re on the sidewalk, she hugs her arms around mine right arm and drops her head on my shoulder. Hell yeah, I’m walking REALLY slow now! 

I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I don’t know what’s going to happen when one of us loses the primaries and one of us wins. I don’t even know what she was mad, or might still be, mad at me for. 

But just for this moment, the planets are aligned, and just for this moment she’s on my arm because she wants to be there, and I want her to be there. So I’m going to make this moment last as long as possible. 

THE END


End file.
